Staffers leaving the White House are leaving secret messages for Trump in their resignation letters
In the wake of Donald Trump’s response to the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, some people just had to resign from their government jobs in an attempt to distance themselves from the controversial president. What’s truly odd about the wave of resignations, however, is that people are leaving coded messages for Trump in their resignation letters. And, well, we support their ingenuity.
Last week, the entire Presidential Council for Arts and Humanities resigned after Trump seemingly endorsed racist protestors (or at the very least, failed to denounce) with a five paragraph letter.
The paragraphs began with the words“Reproach,” “Elevating,” “Speaking,” “Ignoring,” “Supremacy,” and “Thank you,” which spells out “RESIST.”
Then, this week, Trump’s science envoy Daniel Kammen wrote a resignation letter, too. He tweeted out an image of the letter and added, “Mr. President, I am resigning as Science Envoy. Your response to Charlottesville enables racism, sexism, & harms our country and planet.” Kammen’s letter was seven paragraphs long and details exactly why he felt he could no longer work in the administration. It was a solid resignation letter on its own, but when you look closely, you’ll notice that the first words in each paragraph spells out “IMPEACH.”
Here’s Kammen’s letter.
.@dan_kammen resigns as Trump science envoy. pic.twitter.com/2WJ2mxnHNg
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) August 23, 2017
And the Arts Council’s…
Update:All members have now resigned. Per @politico, PCAH is an official agency, that makes this the 1st White House department to resign pic.twitter.com/kk7buaVr9G
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) August 18, 2017
They’re both pretty strong messages from government officials who have had it with the president.
Apparently, politicians have been doing this for ages. In 2009, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s team spelled out “F*CK YOU” in a veto message to his state’s congress when he was the governor of California. If you’ve ever watched a show like HBO’s VEEP or something you get it — these people have entire staffs dedicated to writing their speeches and correspondence. Coded messages just make it more fun.
Although it’s a good distraction from the mess of politics these days, what’s most important about these letters aren’t the hidden messages. The fact that so many people have felt the need to resign in protest of the Trump administration shouldn’t be glossed over. Something’s not right.
